Sextus Roscius tried in Rome for patricide

Patricide

Patricide is the act of killing one's father, or a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater and the Latin suffix -cida...

 in 80 BC, was defended successfully by the young Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 in his first major litigation. The defense involved some risk for Cicero, since he accused Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus

Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus

Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus was a Greek freedman of Lucius Cornelius Sulla whom Sulla put in charge of the proscriptions of 82 BC. He was accused of corruption by Marcus Tullius Cicero during the trial of Sextus Roscius...

, a freedman of Sulla, then dictator of Rome, of corruption and involvement in the crime.

Caecilia the priestess

Before the trial, Roscius was sheltered by Caecilia, who appears to be Caecilia Metella Balearica Major, a former Vestal Virgin by this time (since she had her own house). This Caecilia

Caecilia Metella (priestess)

Caecilia Metella, , elder daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus, was a Vestal Virgin and a Priestess of the Goddess Juno Sospita....

 was a relative of Sulla's wife Caecilia Metella Dalmatica, and had powerful connections among the Roman elite; her intercession for the young Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 saved his life and political career. In 80 BC, the Metelli were staunchly in Sulla's camp. Her brother was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos was a son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus. He was a Consul in 98 BC, having fought at the Iberian Peninsula against the Celtiberians and the Vaccaei, suffering before these ones a memorable defeat.He married Licinia Prima, who after widowed married the...

, a former consul whose stepdaughter Mucia Tertia

Mucia Tertia

Mucia Tertia was a Roman matrona who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, consul in 95 BC. Her mother was a Licinia that divorced her father to marry Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, in a scandal mentioned by several sources...

 was now wife of Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

; her cousins included Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus Pius

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius was a pro-Sullan politician and general. He was named Pius because of his 99 BC petition to return his father from exile and was true to his cognomen for the constance and inflexibility with which he always fought for his father's rehabilitation and return to...

, chief ally of Sulla. Her widowed brother-in-law was Appius Claudius Pulcher

Appius Claudius Pulcher (praetor 88 BC)

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC.His father is uncertain — Gaius Claudius Pulcher or most likely Appius, Consul in 143 BC. The son was a supporter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and served as praetor in 88 BC. He was exiled in that year by Gaius Marius while Sulla...

, consul 79 BC as another ally of Sulla.